For Jesus, the heart is the heart of the matter

Sermon preached at St. Mark’s Honey Brook, PA

by The Rev. Thomas C. Pumphrey, September 3, 2006

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 17, year B), Mark 7:1-23 (Deuteronomy 4:1-9)

Mark 7:1-23 (NRSV): Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" He said to them, "Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.' You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition."

Then he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, 'Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban' (that is, an offering to God)-- then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this."

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile." When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, "Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, "It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

This morning’s reading from the Gospel according to Mark zeroes in on the heart of the matter. How we look, and the rituals that we observe do not make us the persons we are. When it comes to who we are and what our relationship with God is, the heart is the heart of the matter.

In this reading, Jesus teaches the crowds and his disciples that who you are—what motivates you, your intentions and attitudes—these things are more important than outward, ritual appearances. Jesus challenges the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who follow a strict legalism in their ritual customs, yet find loopholes to serve their own interests. The Pharisees followed ritual customs of washing to establish spiritual purity. They knew nothing of bacteria in those days. They were concerned with the code of ritual purity that sought to separate the sacred from the pagan world around them. They seemed to think that if they kept to the ritual cleaning rules, that they would remain pure from the corruption of the Roman world. But Jesus tells them that purity is not a matter of ritual defense from the outside world. Purity is rather a matter of the inside world. Purity is a matter of the heart.

I have heard many people say that they think Christians are hypocrites. They dress up on Sunday and go through their rituals, but during the week, they are cutthroat, ruthless and selfish. They seem to rely on the outward appearance of piety at church, yet inwardly—in the heart—their rhythm of life worships different gods.

I hope that none of us provide such blatant examples of such hypocrisy to the world around us. However, all Christians are hypocrites to some extent. Christians have high standards, and yet we all fail those high standards at some level. That is why we confess our sins. We do not live the way we hope to live. Our lives and our hopes for our lives are out of synch. Unless we simply give up the effort (as is so easy to do), we seek a wholeness of life—a life that integrates who we are with who we want to be. Living life with this integrity is not so much a matter of external appearances or simple knowledge. Jesus says that living life with integrity is a matter of the formation of the heart.

In this passage, Jesus doesn’t go into how the heart is formed. In this passage, Jesus identifies the problem. Our sinful actions such as the vices that Jesus lists—fornication, theft, murder, adultery, and so on, come from an ill-formed heart. The last several evils in Jesus’ list are internal conditions that motivate us in the wrong direction—licentiousness, envy, pride. Our sinful actions aren’t a matter of someone else’s fault or responsibility—their origins are in our own hearts—they spring from how we have formed and shaped our lives, our motivations, our values and affections. Jesus identifies the problem, but that just begs the question—what is the solution? How do we avoid such hypocrisy? How is the heart formed and shaped to bear the fruit of virtue and blessing? For this question, we must look elsewhere in the Bible.

What we find reminds me of another metaphor from the movie the Karate Kid. Last week, I used a story from that old movie to illustrate a point and I have another story for you this week. I’m not advocating this movie or karate as the solution to all our struggles—no, there are just parts of this story that act as good metaphors for these lessons. In the movie, a young boy named Daniel wants to learn karate from an old maintenance man from Okinawa named Mr. Miagi. First, Daniel needed to make a decision of commitment to his master, as his master was committed to him. Then came Daniel’s lessons. These lessons serve as a metaphor for how our hearts are formed and shaped.

For Daniel’s first karate lesson, Mr. Miagi brought Daniel out to a parking lot full of old cars. He instructed Daniel to wash and wax them all. When he waxed the cars, he was to use a particular movement: “wax on” with a circle from his right hand, “wax off” with a circle from his left hand. “Wax-on; wax-off!” All day long, “wax-on, wax-off.” The next day, he asked Daniel to sand his wooden deck with a similar movement: “Sand-deck!” The next day, “paint-fence: up down, left hand, right hand.” The next day—“paint house.” Daniel relied on that commitment he made to stay patient as he remodeled Mr. Miagi’s property. But at some point, Daniel got fed up with this work, and became angry with his master. Then his master demonstrated for him how all these tasks—all the wax-on, wax-off and paint-fence and paint house, all this time and patient energy—how all this srudgery had trained his arms and hands for the basic defensive blocks of karate. When Mr. Miagi threw punches toward Daniel, Daniel could block every one, simply by the instinctive movements of “wax-on, wax-off, paint-fence, sand-deck, paint-house.”

Our spiritual lives are like this—what we do each day forms and shapes who we are. Daniel didn’t think that his daily routine was teaching him karate, but unknown to him, he was training his body with each chore. We may not think that we are engaged in the work of theology as we drive to work, or as we talk to our customers or sit in history class. We may not think that we are working on character development or spiritual habits as we eat dinner or watch TV or play games with kids. But each day, we form habits—physical and spiritual—that impact who we are and form and shape the sort of heart we have. Over time, we build a rhythm of life that teaches us how to respond when the punches fly. The question is—what kind of hearts are we forming? What kind of spirit are we developing?

This morning’s Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy ends with a reminder that is repeated several times in the Old Testament (repeated like “wax-on, wax-off”): Moses tells the people “take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget [what God has done for you] nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.” When Moses presents the central message of the law: to love the LORD our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength, Moses adds: “Recite these [words] to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). Every day, in all that you do, form and shape your hearts for the love of the Lord.

The disciplines of daily life form and shape our hearts—and they impact those around us as well. I remember wanting my mother’s attention one morning when I was a little boy. She told me that I would have to wait—that was her quiet time—her time to read the Bible and to pray. Her habits helped shape who she is, and her example left me with a lasting impression of the reality of a relationship with God.

The disciplines of reading and meditating on Holy Scripture, the discipline of daily prayer, the discipline of reaching out to others—these all form and shape our hearts. I continue to encourage you to a discipline of dedicating three hours each week to the service of God in this church—one hour of worship each week, one hour of Christian Formation and spiritual growth each week, and one hour of ministry in this place each week. This rhythm of life can help to form and shape our hearts over time. “Christian Formation” is a newer buzz-phrase in the church. Using “Christian Formation” instead of “Christian Education” reminds us that the focus of our groups and programs is not the dispensation of information, but rather the formation of Christian hearts and minds and souls in relationship with God.

Next week, we begin new opportunities for Christian Formation programs. Our young children will have Sunday School at 9:30 before worship, and older youth and adults will gather for Sunday Study at that time also. Later on, we will have evening Bible studies and dinner series programs—all opportunities to continue to form and shape your heart—to form and shape who you are so that you might live the life you aspire to live.

Of course, all these programs and practices may just end up being like those hand washing practices of the Pharisees. Like the Pharisees, we might just go through the motions, or get caught up in the appearance of piety. Like the Pharisees, we might forget the relationship with God that is the heart of the matter. Jesus says that the heart is the heart of the matter. So if our habits of life alone are not the perfect answer, then what is?

In the book of the prophet Ezekiel, God promises us: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; through the gift of the Holy Spirit, God gives us a new heart.

Each day, as we walk more closely with God, as we seek God’s presence, God renews our hearts and minds. As we are more and more aware of God’s care for us, we are better equipped to care for others. As we are aware of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we are better formed and shaped for lives of generosity and grace. We see others the way God sees others. We understand the world the way its creator understands the world. We see and understand ourselves the way our creator sees and understands us. We find our hearts formed and shaped not just by our habits, but by God who walks with us as we walk with him. We see more clearly the life that God wants for us, and we understand more intuitively how we can live that life with greater integrity every day.

Jesus said that the heart is the heart of the matter. In a relationship with God lived out each day, God forms and shapes our hearts for greater integrity and greater wholeness.